[TWIAR] Dispute on CB airwaves leads to fatal shooting

[Greg Williams]

Dispute on CB airwaves leads to fatal shooting
Vancouver - One father in his 40s winds up dead while a second father in 
his 40s winds up in jail
Sunday, October 01, 2006
JULIE SULLIVAN and ALLAN BRETTMAN
http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/115968221136530.xml?oregonian?lcg&coll=7&thispage=2

By all accounts, they could have been friends. Both were dads in their 
mid-40s who loved fixing cars and CB radios. Instead, after hot words on 
channel 17, they met in their pickups at a Vancouver mall early 
Saturday. Both had guns and one wound up dead.

An autopsy is scheduled today for Kenneth Eichhorn, 47, of Vancouver, 
who died Saturday after undergoing surgery at Southwest Washington 
Medical Center.

Police say Eichhorn was shot in his truck in the Westfield Mall lot 
after radio insults escalated into a confrontation.

John W. Loveless, 44, of Vancouver called emergency dispatchers after 
the incident to say he was involved in a shooting. Detectives 
interviewed Loveless at his home and he was booked into the Clark County 
Jail on one count of second-degree murder. He was being held without 
bail Saturday. No court appearance had been set.

Tina Cook, Loveless' live-in girlfriend of 20 years, said she was in 
their garage with Loveless and two friends earlier Friday evening when 
Loveless was talking on the often raucous channel 17 using an echo -- a 
device that repeats the sound. It had drawn complaints from other CB 
radio users over the previous few nights.

"Some people don't like hearing it," Cook said. "He was saying one, two, 
three, four, five, six, trying to be funny. He was trying to have a good 
time."

Some listener told him to turn off his radio and go to bed.

"He doesn't like being told what to do; he's 44 years old," Cook said.

Cook said Loveless was trying to sell the device and a male voice said 
he wanted to buy it and smash the thing on their driveway. That's when 
Cook said another CB user broadcast their address.

"This guy wanted to come over and fight, and John didn't want him over 
at our house," Cook said.

She said that Loveless told the man to meet at the mall, not come to the 
house. "That's when it all happened."

Cook said she went to bed. The couple has five children, including three 
older children from previous relationships, and two daughters. She said 
she woke up shortly after 1:10 a.m. to Loveless crying and saying that 
he shot someone.

"When he called 9-1-1, I knew it wasn't a dream," Cook said. "He put his 
gun on the kitchen counter and told police he'd be waiting."

Vancouver police found Eichhorn in his pickup with gunshot wounds, 
spokesman Doug Deaver said.

"It's devastating," said his mother, Jean Jenkins, "It's devastating to 
so many people."

Eichhorn, an auto technician at Curt Warner Chevrolet, celebrated his 
first wedding anniversary Friday with his wife, Flo.

Eichhorn had inherited his love of radios from his father, a Korean War 
veteran and ham radio operator who died when Eichhorn was a boy, family 
members said. After growing up in Oregon City and Milwaukie, Eichhorn 
joined the Army. He went to work as an auto tech in Portland for many 
years before moving to Vancouver.

Eichhorn was a devoted father, relatives said, who after losing his 
older son in an accident, doted on his daughter, Katie, 7. He had the 
child every other weekend after he and her mother divorced, phoning and 
e-mailing constantly. "He was the world to her," said Donna Eichhorn, 
his former wife.

Donna Eichhorn said that even if angered by another driver, her former 
husband would yell but never "do the gun thing. He was in the service. 
He knew not to be stupid."

On Saturday night, Donna Eichhorn said her daughter asked to put on her 
dad's Army jacket and crawled into her mother's bed wearing it and her 
parent's wedding ring.


-- 
Greg Williams
K4HSM
k4hsm at knology.net

http://www.twiar.org
http://www.etskywarn.net